


Building to the Origin

by ZedElla (Leviarty)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 08:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4384190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leviarty/pseuds/ZedElla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It could have started anywhere along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Building to the Origin

**Author's Note:**

> I recently started an SGA rewatch and it's got me thinking about all the ways McShep could have happened.

It doesn’t start after Sheppard’s almost-sacrifice, after he flies a nuke up the ass of a Wraith Hive ship. He returns to the surface of Atlantis, still a little shocked to be alive. It doesn’t start in the downtime between attacks, when a very pissed off McKay accosts him in the hallway. He’s not accustomed to being assaulted with the tongue of his friend and teammate, but he doesn’t put up a fuss. McKay, however, is having none of his shit. “Don’t you ever, _ever_ do something that stupid again,” he says, swatting the Major upside the head before they’re both called away to deal with the next crisis.

It’s not on Dagan, where they’re searching for the ZPM hidden by the Brotherhood. Rodney often forgets that John is smarter than he lets on, often forgets just how painfully attractive it is when he talks about numbers with a familiar fondness, but it doesn’t begin when Sheppard solves the puzzle and reveals that he passed the Mensa test.

It doesn’t begin when John feels the first pang of jealousy that a woman is interested in Rodney, and where Rodney, oh so oblivious Rodney, tries to reciprocate that interest. John would almost think it was funny, just how terrible at this Rodney is, how terribly oblivious he is to it all. Would think it was funny, if it didn’t make him want to shove Allina out of the way and take Rodney for himself.

And no, it doesn’t begin after Proculus, after _stupid_ Sheppard copulates with an ascended Ancient, after Rodney realizes that it’s not anger or resentment that he feels, but perhaps jealousy.

It’s not when John feels a jolt of fear upon hearing the screams of the science team dying, and _knowing_ that Rodney was next. Only Rodney wasn’t next, and they solved it all before anyone else could die as a result of the nanites. It could have started in the relief that followed, but it didn’t.

And it didn’t start in the Jumper, after McKay helps the injured Sheppard limp back to safety, after saving his life (with a little help from Ford). They’re both exhausted, mentally and physically, and McKay is still reeling from losing two of his science team, right before his eyes.

It’s not after the storm passes, where there is only calm, with a little flooding. Sheppard knows the deaths will eat at him, that he’s killed a lot of people in a short time, but McKay and Weir are alive, and the city is saved, and for the moment, that’s enough.

It’s doesn’t begin in the back half of the jumper, the front stuck in the event horizon, when John is dying and McKay is panicking in an effort to save them all, not in the infirmary after, when Rodney pats his shoulder, grateful they all made it out alive, but mostly grateful not to have lost a friend.

Nor does it begin when Rodney walks down into the heart of the entity, with nothing to protect himself but a paper-thin, possibly malfunctioning Ancient shield, when Sheppard grasps at warm hands to find a pulse, but that is the moment he knows Rodney is the right man for his team.

It’s not even when the number 720 rolls of Sheppard’s tongue like it was common knowledge, like something everyone should have known, and McKay is stunned into almost silence because he’s found that most of the military personnel (and a substantial number of scientists) have zero understanding of combinatorics.

No, it begins in Antarctica, when Rodney first lays eyes on the glorified cab driver, sitting in the control chair like it was nothing more than a good place to watch TV from. And, _of course_ , this wholly uninformed grunt, ignorant to the possibility of life outside the Earth, of course he has the Ancient Gene, and of course it comes as naturally to him as, say, _breathing_.

It begins when Rodney asks a dozen outlandish, _impossible_ questions, and John discovers that he has the answers right at his fingertips, that all the mysteries of the universe have revealed themselves to him. And John knows that everyone on base can hardly stand to be in the same room as McKay, can see it on their faces the moment he walks in, but he doesn’t feel a shred of the annoyance he sees in their eyes; when Rodney starts talking, all he can do is smile.

That’s when they start to fall.

It just takes a while to realize that there’s something to catch them.


End file.
